Shout Out to the Experts: Using Clear Elastic (to Stabilize a Neckline) with a Cover Stitch Machine

Hey y'all: I hope to make V1027 this weekend:

And to use my new coverstitch machine to its best advantage, in the process!

Here's my situation (and I haven't been able to find much out there on the topic):

I'd like to stabilize the neckline - which is sewn by simply turning the raw edge under and stitching (according to the directions).

My choice method would be to use 1/4 inch clear elastic (I love this stuff). Before I got the CoverPro, I'd have attached it with my serger, turned the hem under and top stitched with my regular machine. Now that I have the coverstitch machine, I'd like to use it to neatly coverstitch the neckline down.

As far as I can tell, using the serger to apply the elastic before coverstitching will result in a messy, bulky wrong-side with tons of looper thread (first the serger thread followed by the coverstitch thread). However, given how the coverstitch machine works (which I barely understand, admittedly), it seems like the coverstitch might not adequately catch the elastic as I'm stitching, if I don't first have it adhered to the wrong-side, raw-edge of the fabric (which is what the serging would do).

I've read that you can use iron-on adhesive (like Heat n Bond) to hold the elastic down between the layers of the turned up hem prior to coverstitching but, having never used this product, I don't know how I'd go about it.

I suppose I could also simply use knit stay tape, instead of clear elastic, to give the edge a bit of ballast before coverstitching, but I sense that will leave the neckline vulnerable to stretching in the long run.

And, natch, I could just forgo the coverstitch on the neckline, in favour of my serger method (though my new Husqvarna doesn't seem to love top-stitching stretch fabric - at least not yet).

So, here are the questions:

• Is there a tutorial to show how to attach 1/4 inch elastic to a turned under hem using a coverstitch machine? OR Is there no way to do this reliably?

• Can you use the clear elastic with the coverstitch machine by applying iron-on adhesive first and, if yes, how exactly?

• Do you think that knit stay tape (like fusible interfacing in a strip) will do the trick?

• Is the serger method the best way to go? (I really want a stunning double top stitch on the neckline and that's a crap shoot with my regular machine.)

Oh, and while I'm at it:

• I understand that V1027 is designed for a 2-way knit (only). My intention is to use modal with 4 way stretch (having very good recovery). If anyone else has made it using 4-way stretch fabric, can you confirm that the pattern works? If it doesn't, pls. do tell me now!

Thanks all for any feedback you might be able to provide. I'm a bit in the dark here...

In Which I Advise You To Engage in the Occasional Act of Protest

You never know where it will lead. 

To wit, my new baby:

Photo of the Janome CoverPro 1000 CPX from here

I guess the universe heard my bratty cry and encouraged my husband to buy me the coverstitch machine for my birthday.

You would be right in remembering that he has already bought me my birthday present - another sewing machine (which I love). In fact, with the exception of my serger, he's bought me all of my machines. Let's call him an enabler :-) Truly, though, if I am ever lucky enough to be remembered as a couturier (I'm working up to it slowly...), I'll have Scott to thank.

I haven't had a chance to try the CoverPro yet. It arrived yesterday and I've been working / occupied by after-work activities. However, I did take it out of the box, set it up on my table and admire it. 

   

Ooooh, such a pretty machine! I've bought one non-standard attachment (it comes only with the standard heming foot): the clear foot (which I understand is pretty necessary cuz the regular version doesn't allow you to see when you hit the end of your hem "in the round"). See, I got this machine, primarily, to hem. That doesn't mean I won't learn all of its other features over time (binding, felling etc.) but I'm not going to invest another 500 bucks in accessories simply to have them. I'm one of those organic, immersive learners. If I don't feel the need to know how to do something specific, chances are I'm not going to waste my time figuring it out. Which is why, 3 years later, I'm only now starting to learn the secret things about my serger. Mind you, I'm really hopeful about - and looking forward to - some awesome, professional-grade hems on all of my garments as I figure out how that function works. And I hope I figure it out quickly!

Please stay tuned for more info on this wonderful gift as I begin to understand it.

One other thing, Lord help me: I think I have to confess that I really have taken to this top: 

The shoulders are too wide, fyi, so it's not perfect. But I'm half-inclined to make it again (after removing an inch of width from the shoulder seam, grading to nothing at the underarm). I'm still not recommending it and I don't know that I can bear to bring myself to re-undertake the slog. Point is, I really should avoid those categorical pronouncements I enjoy so much.

Today's questions: Don't you think I'm SO lucky!? What's your top piece of advice about using a coverstitch machine? Tips and tricks are so welcome! Let's talk!

The Summer Series: Five in Five, Take 3 (Again) and How I Sound Like I'm From 1932

So here it is, V8790, on the second try:

I can't tell you how precisely never it's going to be before I make this thing again.

I could tell you why but do we really want to bother? I know lots of peeps on Pattern Review liked this thing but you can't trust them let's agree to disagree. Look, I may even wear this top despite 5 miserable hours of construction (wherein all of the same problems recurred along with some new ones). But I'm not going to pretend it's worth your time. Hell, I didn't even hem it cuz, um, who cares?! It's not gonna ravel.

Actually, that point leads me to my next topic - how not hemming knits is heretofore an act of protest - until I get a cover stitch machine. I even found one yesterday, in my own town, new from a reputable shop: the Janome Coverpro 1000CPX (apparently an extremely good machine) for $599.00 which would have been delivered to me same day for and extra10 bucks?!?!?! Honestly, this was a gift.

Alas, I ended up spending that money, the very same hour, on a new dryer, mine haven given up the ghost after 16 years, a week before. Yesterday is when the Sears guy came, dug around for a minute, and said: I could open up the machine but that'll cost you 100 bucks. The motor is shot. It'll cost $400 to fix or you can get a new dryer for approximately the same price.

If you're not prepared to shop around, and you tend to buy appliances in 30 minutes by looking a specs online and then calling a store to set up delivery and installation, it actually ends up costing the same amount as a new cover stitch machine. $730 bucks all in. As you can see, I'm no appliance-whore (I went Kenmore all the way. I mean, the last one lasted 16 years.)

Gotta say, sometimes home-ownership sucks the fun out of things. (I know, I know, such a very bourgeois sentiment...)

Let's take another look at the new top with my new skirt - which is awesome by the way and from a pattern which I in no way begrudge...

Sweet outfit, no? One can almost pretend the top was a success. And, as I made it for free (you know, if you think of stash fabric like that), I saved approximately 200 bucks on a new outfit. I guess I might apply that to my savings fund for the new Janome Coverpro - if it weren't already spent 3 ways.

On a final note, last evening, we went for dinner with a friend who told me (much to my surprise) that I speak in the perfect twenty-first century incarnation of the mid-Atlantic accent (youngsters - simply imagine every Cary Grant film you've ever seen the first 5 minutes of). I find this hilarious! I mean, I've often been told that I enunciate exceedingly. And that I am dramatic. But no one's ever said this before! And lest you think I sound like Katharine Hepburn, my voice has none of that fab gravel and is much more in the timbre of a high-note bell. Still super fun. I feel so black-and white!

Today's questions: What do you think of the top? Or the skirt? Or the dryer-debacle? And do you sound vaguely anachronistic? I wanna know!